Jeff Malet Photography

Barack Obama

President Barack Obama awarded the highest civilian honor to 18 people, including Meryl Streep, Stevie Wonder, Tom Brokaw, Alvin Ailey and Ethel Kennedy during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on November 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. The Medal of Freedom is the country's highest civilian honor. The first African-American U.S. president also gave medals to the families of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were killed in Mississippi in 1964. (Photo by Jeff Malet)